3Dlabs Tapes Out Its Most Complex Chip to Date Using Magma Software; High-Speed, Deep Sub-Micron, Thirty Million Transistor Design.

Business & Technology Editors

CUPERTINO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 13, 2000

Magma(TM) Design Automation, a technology leader in silicon design implementation solutions, today announced that 3Dlabs(R), Inc. (NASDAQ: TDDD) has completed the physical design of its most complex graphics processor to date -- using Magma's Blast Fusion(TM) physical design system.

The chip, code named Emma, has been signed off by 3Dlabs and is entering full-scale manufacturing. This high-speed, deep sub-micron design contains over eight million gates, or about 30 million transistors, making it more complex than most microprocessors available today.

"Achieving timely physical designs of enormously complex graphics devices such as Emma poses huge challenges to any chip team and their layout tools," remarked Paul Pontin, vice president of semiconductor engineering at 3Dlabs. "After a thorough evaluation of Blast Fusion, we became convinced that it might be the only physical design toolset that could efficiently handle a design of this size. We were correct --not only is Magma the most professional EDA tool vendor we have worked with, the Blast Fusion software really came through for us on this very demanding project."

3Dlabs also recently announced that it is offering its extensive range of visual processing intellectual property (IP) for advanced system-on-chip (SOC) designs in the emerging embedded graphics and visual appliance markets.

"Success in the emerging silicon IP market depends as much on the design tools as the IP itself," said Neil Trevett, senior vice president of market development at 3Dlabs. "We believe that the proven capability of Magma's tools will give us a substantial competitive advantage when integrating complex IP into our customers' SOC devices."

Designing Emma Using Blast Fusion

3Dlabs designs advanced graphics processors for use in its professional graphics accelerators and embedded markets requiring advanced visual processing. Emma is a high-performance workstation graphics processor, providing high-quality acceleration for standard graphics APIs such as OpenGL(R) and Microsoft's DirectX. 3Dlabs' workstation products are used in CAD design and digital media content creation. For example, many of the special effects in the film "The Matrix" were created on 3Dlabs accelerators.

Based on its previous experience, 3Dlabs knew that traditional EDA software could not handle a processor of the size of Emma without imposing a complicated design hierarchy. It selected Blast Fusion because of its ability to deliver optimal timing for large designs without forcing designers to break the design into numerous smaller blocks and requiring multiple iterations back through synthesis.

Adds Rajeev Madhavan, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Magma: "We chose the hardest of challenges in our quest to prove the viability of our tool. 3Dlabs designed a chip bigger than the Pentium III and the UltraSparc III, some of the most advanced microprocessors available today. Blast Fusion passed the test with flying colors. And, based on our experiences during the design process, we have an even stronger product today."

About Magma

Founded in April 1997, Magma Design Automation develops, manufactures and markets silicon design implementation systems based on Magma's patent-pending FixedTiming(TM) methodology. This methodology combined with a single, unified data model architecture and a complete suite of built-in design and optimization engines and analysis tools enable the Blast Chip(TM) and Blast Fusion(TM) systems to deliver the fastest post-layout timing without iterations back through synthesis. Magma's EDA solutions accurately predict final timing prior to detailed layout and hold that timing constant throughout the detailed physical design process.

To ensure compatibility with existing design environments and emerging design tools, Magma offers the MagmaTies Program. The goals of the MagmaTies program are cooperation between EDA vendors, compatibility among tool offerings, and delivery of solutions to a range of interface, integration, and verification problems for common customers.

Headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., the company maintains sales and support offices in Silicon Valley, Austin, Boston, Germany, Israel, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. Corporate headquarters are at 2 Results Way, Cupertino, Calif., 95014. Visit Magma Design Automation on the web at www.magma-da.com.

About 3Dlabs, Inc.

Founded in 1994, 3Dlabs is a leading supplier of graphics accelerator solutions and visual processing IP for workstation design professionals and embedded and appliance markets that require advanced visual processing. 3Dlabs sells its award-winning Oxygen and Wildcat professionals graphics accelerators to leading system OEMs including Compaq, Dell, Fujitsu, Fujitsu-Siemens, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intergraph Computer Systems, Hitachi, NEC and Sun Microsystems, through an international distributor and reseller network and directly to end-users at 3Dlabs' online store. The performance-leading Wildcat and high volume Oxygen accelerator families target complementary segments of the Computer Aided Design (CAD), Digital Content Creation (DCC), geophysical, medical and visual simulation markets, resulting in the broadest range of professional graphics products in the industry today. 3Dlabs has operations in Alabama, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Texas, Washington, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom. For more information, please visit www.3dlabs.com.

Blast Chip, Blast Fusion, FixedTiming, and Magma are trademarks of Magma Design Automation. All other product and company names are trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective companies.